One of the primary benefits of VoIP services is the ability to allow a subscriber to choose an out of area phone number that is not within the local calling area of the subscriber's registered service address. A subscriber requests an out of area phone number that is outside of the geographical location of their service address in order to have a local presence in a particular desired region. When a subscriber's service address does not map to the local calling area of the subscriber's out of area phone numbers, the subscriber is not eligible for enhanced 911 services. More importantly, the ineligibility of enhanced 911 (E911) services prevents subscribers with out of area phone number from receiving help using their subscribed VoIP services in an emergency situation.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for mapping Media Access Control addresses to subscriber service addresses for providing services such as enhanced 911 calls in a packet network, e.g., a VoIP network.